[From the diaries by susanhu.]
Update [2005-10-11 14:18:23 by ATinNM]:
Yet more information coming in, via Keith Olbermann’s MSNBC Countdown newsletter:
In a “special report” tonight and tomorrow, Olbermannn will be going through the 13 false alerts that were oddly timed with political problems.
Yesterday New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said police would be “slowly winding down” the intensity of subway patrols, after the target date cited in a federal warning about a possible terrorist attack passed without incident. See this.
As Pete Williams said in his report last night, those arrests in Iraq turned up nothing. “Law enforcement officials say today that investigations in the Iraqi city where three men were arrested last week, in response to a tip … turned up no evidence whatsoever of any plan to attack New York. That includes giving the three men lie detector tests, searching their computers, and checking their phone call records.”
Tonight… a postmortem on this latest terror threat, which officials at Homeland Security had said was of doubtful credibility.
And on Wednesday, Keith takes a closer look… As he said yesterday, “…we spoke of at least thirteen [13] coincidences of timing, between bad political news for the government, and a terror or terror-related event… We will be presenting a special report detailing those coincidences on Wednesday night’s edition.”
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CNN has a banner headline:
“Informant in Iraq admits information about a terror plot against New York subway was a hoax, sources tell CNN”
No details are available as of 9:45 MST.
Too funny. MORE below:
Update [2005-10-11 12:30:56 by ATinNM]:
All information from CNN
“Information that led to heightened security for the New York City transit system was a hoax, government sources said Tuesday.
The sources said an informant in Iraq who provided the tip had told investigators there was a terrorist plot involving New York’s subway system. That informant admitted he gave false information, the sources said.
Law enforcement sources said last week the person who passed along the New York tip also gave information that prompted a military operation in Iraq, which led to the arrests of three al Qaeda suspects in Musayyib, about 45 miles south of Baghdad.
Government sources said the three men arrested in Iraq with suspected links to the possible plot had been interviewed and underwent lie detector tests showing they knew nothing about such a plan.”
As I responded to Colman. The importance of this is the fast debunking of the Bush administrations attempt to shore-up their polling numbers.
You don’t say. I’m shocked.
Most of us here suspected the Bomb was an attempt to divert the press with nice shiny objects and raise the fear level in the American populace. Both to shore-up Bush’s sagging poll numbers.
What is heartening is the quick cycle time of rebuttal. They issued the alert on ‘Garbage Day’ (Friday) of a news cycle and it has been rebutted today. There announcement didn’t get very much play and the rebuttal is going to be major news the rest of the week.
The Bush propaganda machine is starting to break.
That is what is important about this.
To plug my own, rather overlooked, but extremely brilliant and prescient analysis of this.
Said in all humility with a straight face, and a tone not unlike the one used by Preznit Batshit Loopy when he announced on election night in 2000, “My brother tells me I won Florida.”
You the man, Joe. Have a 4.
So this means what I have suspected all along…Our Government has no problem Terrorizing US. As Bush says..”You’re either with us or against us”. How can we be with Bush if he continues to cause Terror in places like New York City. People have become immune to Bush and his antics. The boy who cried wolf for his own political gain. And now those below him are learning from him. Bloomberg..didn’t take long for him to learn how to play the Terror game. Consider us the people of the US Fucked.
Next we’ll learn that the unnamed “Informant in Iraq” speaks perfect English and was born in Brooklyn . . .
This article was written on the 7th:
Source: Canada.com via Yahoo.news.
Great.
And I predict that when there are hints of a REAL threat, we won’t be told because they won’t be able to figure out if it’s politically expedient to do so at the moment.
I know Bush doesn’t like to read but I wonder if Condi ever read “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” to him. Apparently not.
Given the dysfunctionality of the Bush regime and it’s minions, if there was a real threat it’s doubtful they’d become aware of it until after it manifested.
Since this was originally deemed a “credible” source, I am left wondering what standards are being utilized. I guess that as long as it benefits Bushco that’s good enough.
This one was all Bloomberg, our idiot Republican mayor’s doing. Funny how he’s up for re-election in 3 weeks and tries to do his ‘Giuliani’ schtick. And all the rich Dems are supporting him, ugh.
Everyone I know in NYC knew this was not credible for a minute.
That said we still all think we’re a big target and will get hit again. The city is not protected.
boran2: I am left wondering what standards are being utilized.
Me also. I guess I’ve got to get cracking on my Artificial Intelligence research as Human Intelligence Intelligence seems to be slowly fading away.
Wilfred: A guess: the non-response to Katrina could have set the stage for this as the Bush administration didn’t want to be seen having prior information of a “creditable threat” (sic), ignoring it, and then have a bomb or two go off.
And let us not forget the sagging poll numbers.
At first I’ll bet someone in the administration thought this was a win/win/win: drive their legal problems off the front page AND get a bump from countering a terrorist plot AND demonstrate some competence. Alas, for them, this has all the symptoms of becoming a lose/lose/lose.
in connection with this hoax?
None that I know.
There was a rumor going around that the NYC Bomb Squad very carefully disarmed a felonious & dangerous can of Coke – drink enough & see what happens to your teeth! – but I haven’t been able to verify.
In Iraq, authorities detained a third suspect in the plot
So just 3 more hauled off to the Ghraib to provide a little “stress relief” for the “troops.”
I “mis-contextualized” your post and thought you were refering to Muslims in the US.
Yes. Some number – we know of 3 – Muslims have been arrested in Iraq in connection with this incident. What, if anything, they have done in Iraq (other than the sin of walking around being Muslim in the First Degree) is, to me, unknown.
These 3 may very well be terrorists.
These 3 may very well be innocent.
Who Knows?
That’s why we (used to) live under the Rule of Law rather than Rule of Fear.
for their own ends is one thing that we seem to becoming more adept at recognizing. A couple of problems with that though. When there is a bona fide real threat that is location specific, who is left to take it seriously? In a similar way, the trashing of McCain, Swiftboat, Rathergate and the like are to me manifestations of the same propaganda machine. Too bad, we didn’t recognize those so quickly. If we had, Bush would be back in Crawford, clearing tumbleweed, and maybe the troops would be coming home.
Both you and Chamonix1 make a cogent observation.
There is no question there are terrorists who would love to be able to kill Americans in the US with their bombs. This administrations use of intelligence for their own political purposes is eroding public trust in an area where public trust needs to exist.
Yes, there are.
But they don’t need to. One of the main purposes of terrorism is to cause a real sense of terror. As long as we know something real could occur, its working.
And as long as our government eagerly reinforces this thinking, with incidents such as this one, it continues to work.
So, in this whole ‘with’ or ‘against’ thingy, where does our administration fit in?
Stop being intelligent and thoughtful. I’ve got to get some work done!
How to respond … How to respond…
The tradeoff is the public’s “computation” of the security/freedom ratio – by your leave. Authoritarians need to have the security “measuration” – irk, but can’t come up with a better word – at the highest level possible so as to increase their control and power.
The Bush administration rode 9/11 to absurd popularity by a completely understandable ‘Rally ‘Round the Flag’ reaction. They used this support to further their domestic agenda. Now that support has fallen they can no longer shove this agenda down our throats. Further, as the freedom “measuration” is starting to increase opposition to that agenda is also increasing. The Bush administration has gotten used to only minor opposition and they simply do not know how to handle it.
What, if anything, this means is beyond my brain.
(I would also like to ‘ack’ Susanhu’s comment, above.)
As the spouse of a transit worker, false “terror alerts” involving transit make me angry. There is definitely a need for higher vigilance on our transit systems, but all these “warnings” do is lull US citizens into a false sense of security, so if/when the real alert happens, people will ignore it then be pissed when we’re hit.
d’oh! I was immediately suspicious as well since this came the day of Bushy’s speech on the WoT and his mention of those supposed 10 or so terrorist plots the US had foiled since whenever. Seriously, what a bunch of losers. Can’t wait to see Scotty squirm over this one.
We need a new color on the Ter’ism Alert chart for “Wolf.”
I suggest a deep, rich brown–the exact color of bullshit.